ALSO BY KIERSTEN WHITE
Paranormalcy
Supernaturally
Endlessly
Mind Games
Perfect Lies
The Chaos of Stars
Illusions of Fate
This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2016 by Kiersten Brazier
Cover art copyright © 2016 by Sam Weber
Map art copyright © 2016 by Isaac Stewart
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: White, Kiersten, author.
Title: And I darken / Kiersten White.
Description: First edition. | New York : Delacorte Press, [2016]|
Summary: In this first book in a trilogy a girl child is born to Vlad Dracula, in Transylvania, in 1435—at first rejected by her father and always ignored by her mother, she will grow up to be Lada Dragwlya, a vicious and brutal princess, destined to rule and destroy her enemies.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015020681 | ISBN 978-0-553-52231-0 (hc) | ISBN 978-0-553-52232-7 (glb) | ISBN 978-0-553-52233-4 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Princesses—Romania—Transylvania—Juvenile fiction. | Good and evil—Juvenile fiction. | Transylvania (Romania)—History—15th century—Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Princesses—Fiction | Good and evil—Fiction. | Transylvania (Romania)—History—15th century—Fiction. | GSAFD: Historical fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.W583764 An 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
ebook ISBN 9780553522334
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
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Contents
Cover
Also by Kiersten White
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Map
Genealogy
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Dramatis Personae
Glossary
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
For Noah
Te iubesc
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Detail right
1435: Sighisoara, Transylvania
VLAD DRACUL’S HEAVY BROW descended like a storm when the doctor informed him that his wife had given birth to a girl. His other children—one from his first wife, now nearly full grown, and even a bastard child from his mistress, born last year—had been boys. He had not thought his seed weak enough to produce a girl.
He pushed through the door, into the close, heavy air of the tiny bedroom. It stank of blood and fear and filled him with disgust.
Their home in the fortified hill city of Sighisoara was a far cry from what he deserved. It sat next to the main gate, in the suffocating press of the square, beside an alley that reeked of human waste. His retainer of ten men was merely ceremonial, rendering him a glorified placeholder. He might have been the military governor of Transylvania, but he was supposed to be the ruler of all Wallachia.
Perhaps that was why he had been cursed with a girl. Another insult to his honor. He was in the Order of the Dragon, sanctioned by the pope himself. He should be the vaivode, the warlord prince, but his brother sat on the throne, while he was governor of Saxons squatting on his own country’s land.
Soon he would show them his honor on the end of a sword.
Vasilissa lay on the bed, soaked in sweat and moaning in pain. Certainly the weakness that took root in her womb had been her own. His stomach turned at the sight of her, princess now in neither demeanor nor appearance.
The nurse held up a squalling, red-faced little monster. He had no names for a girl. Vasilissa would doubtless want something that honored her family, but Vlad hated the Moldavian royals she came from for failing to bring him any political advantage. He had already named his bastard Vlad, after himself. He would name his daughter the same.
“Ladislav,” he declared. It was a feminine form of Vlad. Diminutive. Diminished. If Vasilissa wanted a strong name, she would have to bear him a son. “Let us pray she is beautiful so we can get some use out of her,” he said. The infant screamed louder.
Vasilissa’s royal breasts were far too important to suckle from. The wet nurse waited until Vlad left, then held the babe to her common teats. She was still full of milk from her own child, a boy. As the baby latched on with surprising fierceness, the nurse offered her own prayer. Let her be strong. Let her be sly. She looked over at the princess, fifteen, lovely and delicate as the first spring blossoms. Wilted and broken on the bed.
And let her be ugly.
VLAD COULD NOT BE bothered to be present for the birth of his second child by Vasilissa: a son, a year younger than his sister, practically chasing her into this world.
The nurse finished cleaning the newborn, then held him out to his mother. He was tiny, perfect, with a mouth like a rosebud and a full head of dark hair. Vasilissa lay, glassy-eyed and mute, on the bed. She stared at the wall. Her gaze never even drifted to her son. A tug on the nurse’s skirt brought her attention downward, where tiny Lada stood, scowling. The nurse angled the baby toward his sister.